THE ANCESTRY OP DOMESTICATED CATTLE. 
217 
Some of the pileworks in the Swiss lakes were erected at this time. 
Beautiful weapons, household utensils, and ornaments were made of 
flint and polished stones. 
Traces of a domesticated dog are found, and before the close of 
the period probably the reindeer had beei;! partially domesticated. 
In the pileworks of Switzerland are found bones of Bos longerons. 
In Denmark the Neolithic period extended from about TOO B. C. 
to 200 B. C. (Miiller, 1897.) In Switzerland it began much earlier — 
extending from about 4000 to 2000 B. C., according to Troltsch. 
During this period we find cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and perhaps 
the horse, domesticated throughout northern and central Europe. 
Possfbly some of the later shell heaps were formed about this time, 
but the most interesting and valuable of our data are from the pile- 
works about the lakes of Switzerland. Eemains of these pileworks 
were often seen during low water in winter, though little notice was 
taken of them until Caspar Lohle, a peasant of Wangen, began to 
collect implements about these works in 1810. The exceptionally 
low water of the winter of 1853-54 exposed so much of the remains 
to view that Ferdinand Keller was led to make a careful study of 
these ancient lake dwellings. So far as our evidence now extends 
the oldest of these w^orks were built at about the beginning of the 
new stone period either by the Aryans, who came from Asia, or by 
people who had borrowed their culture. The similarity of words, 
the domesticated animals, and cultivated plants, and the distribution 
of the pileworks, some of which extend as far east as Turkestan, 
lead to the inference that there may have been a migration. Until 
future anatomical studies of the different peoples decide the question 
we must remain uncertain as to whether the culture was borrowed 
or the people had migrated. 
These lake dwellers had a knowledge of agriculture and cattle breed- 
ing. They grew wheat, six-rowed barley, millet, flax, caraway, weld, 
apples, and raspberries. They kept herds of cattle, goats, sheep, and 
swine. The flesh of the horse was eaten, but it is doubtful if the 
horse was domesticated at this time. Cattle were used as *beasts of 
burden. Cows were milked and cheese and butter made. A dasher 
for churning butter was made from a portion of a tree with fascicu- 
late branches, such as is used at the present time in the West Indies. 
Bones of Bo8 longifrons^ or the " little marsh cow," are very abun- 
dant, and this at a period possibly before Babylonian civilization 
(Diirst). 
Bison and Bos pHmigenius are among the Avild animals, but there 
is some evidence that the latter was tamed at this period, giving rise 
to several varieties. Apparently there were crosses between Bos pri- 
migenius and Bos longifrons. 
